Twenty miles away from his destination, Heyes was struggling, staying awake was proving a challenge, never mind managing to keep upright in his saddle.
He knew it wouldn't take much for him to fall, so it was with an odd sense of inevitability, that after a small stumble by his mount on a loose stone, he ended up heading quickly towards the ground.
That strange sense of expectation of falling, meant that he somehow managed to hang onto his horse long enough to control his slide, and he simply ended up on the hard path mostly unhurt, albeit badly winded.
Heyes looked up at his mount and thought the damn animal looked to be twelve feet high. After several attempts he managed to struggle to his feet. He took a deep breath and decided he had to attempt getting back on his horse. However after three failed attempts, he realised that there was simply no way he was getting back into his saddle until tomorrow.
He was back to feeling like he needed to hang on to something to stop the world spinning round him. His head was also pounding so viciously that it felt like a whole orchestra had found its way in to it. Suddenly overcome by a bout of nausea, he retched heavily.
He took a large drink of water from his canteen, willing his stomach not to throw it back up to wash the unpleasant sour taste in his mouth and sighed heavily as he cursed Curtis Lowell, Lom and his partner's damn fool stubbornness. "You coulda just waited a few more hours, Kid. It seems a mite ungrateful riding off before you were totally sure I weren't going to wake up." His grumbling drew his horse's attention and Heyes smiled a little, "Ain't mad at you."
Despite the dizziness, nausea and general pain, he managed to set up a basic camp before collapsing to sit against a convenient rock and closed his eyes muttering to himself. "Dammit, Kid, you better not have done something I can't get you out of, cos if you have, if you ain't dead, I'll flatten ya!"
The anger, only a cover for his real sense of concern for his friend, faded quickly, leaving a deep pit of worry in his stomach, only adding to the nausea he was feeling.
He wasn't really that surprised by Kid riding off with revenge on his mind. His partner was never one for being able to sit around and once riled was always hard to talk down. It was, Heyes had to admit, hardly his partner's fault that Flint was obviously as good a doctor as the late unlamented Chauncey Beauregard had been.
XXX
When Kid arrived in Brindle, he immediately headed to the livery, which was in his experience, generally a good place to find out about any strangers passing through a town.
A grizzled looking, rheumy eyed old timer, glanced up from grooming a horse and his unimpressed gaze took in Kid's dusty tired appearance. "You wanting to stable a horse? It's two dollars a day and I ain't open to negotiating none! You can just tie him up outside the hotel, if you don't wanna pay." He paused then added with a sniff. "Or can't."
Already irritated and far too tired, Kid bit down on his impatience to answer as calmly as he could, but judging by the look the man gave him, he wasn't as successful as he'd have liked in keeping his tone level. "I just want some information."
The livery man shrugged. "That'll cost you two bits."
Kid dug the money out of his pocket with a sigh, not bothering to conceal his irritation, and handed it over as he said. "I'm looking for a man, not sure what name he'll be going by these days. But he's an old friend of mine. Bit taller than me, dark curly hair, scar over his left eye, looks kinda shifty, wears his gun tied down."
"Friend?" The livery man eyed him in some suspicion as he obviously noticed that Kid's tone was hardly warm.
Kid stuck his left hand out in annoyance, as his right hand twitched towards his gun. "Look if you ain't gonna tell me, I'll have the money back."
"Ain't meanin' nothin' by it, son." The man added hastily and scratched his beard. "That sounds like Bo Rickman. Comes through every few weeks, sometimes with some poor devil to hand over to the sheriff, takes the bounty, lives it up for a few days then moves on. Other times just looking for work. Never causes no real trouble, but there's something about him I ain't sure of. Came through yesterday, stayed an hour, didn't look too happy, had a real nasty bruise on his cheek. Walking real painful."
Kid felt a small grin spread across his face, glad that Lowell hadn't escaped the fall uninjured. "That sounds like him. You know where he was headin'?"
"He lit outta here pretty quick, when he heard that some wanted guy called Quigley had been seen up near Gilbert."
Kid nodded, tipped his hat and left the livery, Gilbert was maybe a day's ride north.
He remounted quickly and started back towards the open trail. Too consumed by the unfamiliar quiet emptiness by his side and the urge to make Lowell pay for it, he didn't much notice the aching stiffness in his legs, butt and back from being too long in the saddle.
Before he had gone far down the main street, the sky blackened and a crash of thunder, followed by a flash of lightning heralded a vicious downpour. He was soaked in minutes and he could barely see past the end of his horse's nose.
Damn! He was stuck here because there was no way he could risk heading anywhere in this weather. All he'd get was lost and wet. He needed to be at his best when he faced off Lowell. Sighing in frustration, he groaned as he dismounted, the stiffness in his limbs finally breaking through his dark mood,
He hesitated in the pouring rain for a few moments, unsure of what to do, now his plans were effectively halted. With a resigned sigh he knew there was really only one thing he could do.
He led his horse back to the livery and reluctantly handed over two dollars to the now smug looking man. "Hotel is down at the end of the street. Dollar fifty, two if ya want a bath." He sniffed in a way to suggest he thought that would be a good idea. Kid glared at him, shook his head in disgust and walked out before he did or said something they'd both regret.
XXX
Heyes was woken from his restless sleep by a flash of lightning illuminating the now darkened sky, followed by a distant crack of thunder.
As he looked blearily up, he could see the rain clouds forming slightly over from the valley he was in. It wouldn't be long before he was being drenched. He sighed, they could never catch a break lately.
Looking round for shelter, he spied two large rocky outcrops that were close enough together to provide some cover for him and his horse. As he stumbled to his feet, he concentrated on the positive. This weather would stop the Kid wherever he was overnight at least, which might give him time to catch up or at least allow him to reduce the distance between them.